Killer Intent: A Choice Between Two Paths
by Unrealized.Love
Summary: A story between a kunoichi from Konohagakure and the organization of criminal ninja, Akatsuki. The difficulty between choosing what's right and what's wrong. Can the kunoichi defeat the mysterious ninja that appeared in her village?


Killer Intent: A Choice Between Two Paths

Summary: A story between a kunoichi from Konohagakure and the organization of criminal ninja, Akatsuki. The difficulty between choosing what's right and what's wrong. Can the kunoichi defeat the mysterious ninja that appeared in her village?

Characters: Tenten, Deidara, and the shinobi of Konoha.

Chapter One: An Omen Leads to Misfortune

It was dark outside. Past midnight. A brunette kunoichi was panting, she was leaning against the rigid trunk of a tree. Sweat trickled down her body. Just recently rain had begun to sprinkle lightly, making her clothes seem soaked. In front of her stood a male ninja, his Byakugan eyes were activated. He wasn't fatigued, he just stood there... taking in the sight of the picturesque beauty that stood before him. She was oblivious as his eyes poured over her, gazing intently at her.

"Neji...," she called, not finishing her sentence before she went into another phase of panting, "...I think that... that's enough for today."

"...Tenten," he called, his soft voice murmured. Her skin was radiant against the moon's light, it glistened with the drops of rain and sweat that traveled down her face onto her neck... "I'll walk you home."

"Hm?" she looked at him, his Byakugan now inactivated, they closed halfway before he felt blood slowly rise to his face, causing a subtle pink to appear. Tenten was partly surprised by the offer. "Okay, thanks."

The two were training all day long. Since they met with Maito Gai and Rock Lee, it was morning then. The partners trained non-stop...but now that Tenten had come to her limit, Neji decided to stop after Tenten finally admitted that she had enough for the day. The two were an even match, altough the battle was offense and long-range style attacks against a defense and close combat style, neither seemed to have the advantage against the other. Tenten used her weapons from afar and Neji used kaiten as protection from them.

"I'm sorry," Neji whispered out of the blue. He walked alongside her, not brave enough to look directly into her eyes, he was afraid of saying something wrong. Tenten's brown eyes slowly moved to take a look at him. She was holding her large scroll in her arms as she tried to fix the material that allowed her to carry it on her back. Tenten glanced at Neji, she could't think of anything to say.

"It's okay," she answered quietly. Several dogs began to bark as they passed by someone's house. They didn't seem to be barking at the two. It appeared as if they were warning them, that trouble was coming...

"Tenten, there's a tea house nearby." After speaking, Neji took the time to look at Tenten and give her a shy smile. Her lips twitched up into a grin. "Would you join me in drinking some tea?" he asked her, stopping in the middle of the road to wait for a response. The brunette paused, she was tired... and so sleepy...but she couldn't say no to him. She was afraid of hurting his feelings. She wasn't unaware of Neji's feelings for her, even though he hadn't told anyone about it, she knew.The kunoichi couldn't admit that she felt the same because she didn't... She turned around to face Neji. With a grin, she nodded.

At the tea house, Neji sat across from Tenten on one of the tables. He hadn't spoken about anything. They were just sitting there, wondering what the other was thinking.

"Neji," Tenten finally said as she held her cup, "there's something I''ve been meaning to tell you." To this, the Byakugan wielder quickly looked at his friend. He swallowed hoping she would say that she had feelings for him, he didn't have the right type of courage to admit it. "I--" as she put the cup down, the lights went out throughout the entire street. It went quiet. Tenten felt Neji take hold of her arm as she stood up, he led her outside.

"What's going on?" she asked aloud. The owner of the tea house was talking quietly to his daughter as he quickly grabbed a bag and walked out of the building. He carried his daughter and ran off desperately. "What the hell?" she thought.

"It's the village's signal... or at least that's what it appears to be..." Neji told her. She bit her lip as she used the faint light of the moon to try to find a way to get to a source of light. It was dark and almost ridiculously quiet. Even the dogs stopped barking.

"What are you two still doing out here?!" asked a familiar voice. Tenten reacted too quickly and placed a kunai in the direction of the person's voice, dropping her scroll. With her other hand she held the person's shoulder to keep them from moving. Her heart was beating fast as she slightly made a cut with the weapon. She could feel the person tremble as the cold steel caused goose bumps. "What're you doing? It's me!"

"...Shi...Shikamaru?" asked the bruntette kunoichi confusedly as she squinted. She felt him pull something out of his pocket. It was a miniature flashlight. With a faint click he turned it on and pointed it upwards, to his face. Tenten's face flushed as she realized that the lazy ninja was the person that she had just...attacked. He raised an eyebrow, a smug grin on his face as he noticed how the kunoichi blushed with embarrassment. "Oh, I'm sorry! I was just so suspicious and..."

"You're so thoughtless...," he murmured. "Anyways, as I was going to say, the lights just went out, so don't freak out like maniacs." Neji's eyes narrowed, he had just been called a maniac by Nara Shikamaru. The lazy nin sighed, Tenten noticed that she still had her hands on the kunai and his shoulder.

"Ah, I'm sorry...again...!" she quickly pulled away and placed her hand behind her head, laughing nervously. Neji looked at Tenten from the corner of his eye. She had definitely been frightened by the sudden blackout. Shikamaru placed his hand over the freshly opened wound on his neck and kept it from bleeding any longer. Tenten looked at the ground, guilt spreading across her face. The Nara noticed this and laughed quietly. He pinched her arm as he passed by her and walked in the opposite direction.

"Consider it a gift, ... for all the years that I ignored your cuteness. And payback for the cut." Shikamaru continued walking away and paused, "you know, you two look so chummy together." He looked over his shoulder. "It makes me wonder what you've been doing with her lately, Neji." The Byuakugan wielder glared intensely at him. Shikamaru wasn't the least bit oblivious to this, he chuckled as he continued in the direction he originally planned to head towards.

"Neji, I'm going to go home," spoke the kunoichi a little louder. "You should be going, too. It's really late."

Neji took a step toward Tenten. He ignored his thoughts as he quickly turned around and walked away, not saying anything more. The kunoichi turned towards the forest, she could hear the faint noise of the nocturnal creatures, hunting before the sun came up. She felt bad for turning Neji down after she had agreed to let him walk her home. It was too late to retrieve him.

"I wish that I didn't have to continue living here, I'm only causig the others problems..." she whispered to herself, still staring into the forest. It was too dark to see anything.

"Tenten..." called an enchanting, mysterious voice from the forest. It was so close... was it her imagination? She wanted to follow the voice, find out what it was that was calling her name. A person? Death...?

She shook her head to erase those thoughts. She quickly turned away. Hugging her scroll tightly. While the others were gone, she drove herself crazy with her own thoughts. Gai-sensei had ordered Lee not to advance to the next rank until she had first. She couldn't argue with Gai or Lee, they just began given speeches about how ladies go first...but she knew that all Gai and Lee really wanted was for Lee to continue advancing... she was holding him back.

Now, Neji had fallen for her. Their friendship severed, the two barely even talked regularly anymore. It was killing her inside, choosing to break his heart or pretend to love him and live a false love life. She wished that their relationship was still the same, from when the two were only friends...partners who trained together, seperately from Lee and Gai so that they could have regular training and not such intense sessions like Lee and Gai's.

Tenten walked, now past from where there weren't so many houses. She lived farther from the central part of Konoha, closer to where the forest was. A breeze blew and the light sprinkling of rain turned into a cascading, heavy rain. The kunoichi didn't bother shielding herself from the rain, there was no point anyway. She didn't even bother to hurry her thoughts claimed victory once again, putting her in a heartrending mood.

"Tenten..." called the same voice from before. She covered her ears. Her emotions were taking her over.

"Shut up! Shut the hell up and leave me alone!!" she yelled as she let herself fall to the ground. She sat on top of her legs. Her elbows supporting the top half of her body as she continued to cover her ears, not wanting to talk to anyone.

"What are you doing, un?" asked the voice. Tenten felt tears form in her eyes."Curse these goddamned emotions... they keep betraying me..." she thought. She felt another person's presence move closer to her. He now stood in front of her, watching her meticulously. With every step that he had taken to approach her, she fought back her tears even harder. The blonde male took one of his hands and placed it under her chin. He lifted her face as he lowered himself to meet eye to eye with her. She looked at him with the least bit of killer intent or fear. She was breaking down emotionally.

"This guy... he's Deidara..." she thought as she stared into his eyes, not bothering to read his emotions. She let herself be touched by the villain of the Akatsuki. Her body didn't allow her to move and attack the enemy. Her mind was ordering her to do the opposite of what she wanted to do.

"I've found you at last, Tenten, un."

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Unrealized.Love: Well, I hope that this was a good chapter. I hope you enjoyed it. Please ignore the mistakes... Microsoft Word is such a meanie to me so I just ignore it constantly. Thanks for reading, please review. I'd really appreciate it. :D 


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